New Place, First Meal

Yes, we've moved since I last posted here. And last night, I got the kitchen unpacked, so tonight, I cooked dinner!

I've recently started using Ibotta and Cartwheel to save some money. (I mean very recently... so far I've saved a little over $5 with Cartwheel and before the receipt for this meal I had $2.50 on Ibotta.)

So today when I went grocery shopping on my lunch break, I tried to buy exclusively things that were on one app or both. Out of the whole receipt, the only things not on either app were potatoes, which I thought I would use in tonight's dinner but decided to go with pasta instead.

Which means this meal was made exclusively from items purchased cheaper or with rebates using those two apps. And I totally winged the whole meal. And it was pretty delicious.

To ease myself back into the food blogging thing, I'm not going to do formatted recipes, just a narrative of what I did.

Boneless Pork Chops, Onions, and Italian-Parmesan Pasta

First, I started the water boiling for the pasta, to give myself some time to figure out what else I wanted to do. Once it started boiling, I put in the pasta and cooked it about 7 minutes (I didn't use much). While that was boiling, I put Italian breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and shallot-pepper seasoning in a bowl and mixed it up, and whisked an egg in another bowl. I also chopped up about half an onion. Once the pasta was done, I drained it in a colander and rinsed it with cold water. Then I put a skillet on the hot burner and melted about 1 Tbsp butter in it. I dredged the boneless center cut pork chops in the egg, then the breadcrumb mixture, coating them evenly, and put them in the skillet. I didn't time them, but a few minutes on each side? Part of the time it was covered, and part of the time it wasn't. Like I said, I winged it all. Once I cut into one and they were done, I moved them to a plate and put the pan lid over them to keep them warm. Then I put another 1/2 Tbsp or so of butter in the pan and put in the onions and maybe 1 tsp of minced garlic. I stirred them up to get the bits up from the pork in the pan mixed in with the onions, and I salted them a little. While they cooked, I put some zesty Italian dressing in the pasta and mixed it thoroughly, then did the same with some Parmesan.

Look, I Made Lunch! Eggs, Potatoes, & Bacon

I've pulled out the Sistema again, finally. Sistema is this great collection of plastic lunchware that I absolutely love and has had the most success getting me to take lunch to work. I have a whole set of green: three containers and three little squeeze bottles for sauces (two of the bottles are blue and pink/purple).

Anyway, this isn't a commercial... I'm just excited about using my Sistema containers again.

Today, I brought lunch that incorporated a little bit of leftovers from last night's dinner! I didn't eat all of my piece of pork, so I cut it into tiny pieces and made an egg scramble with some diced onion and cheddar cheese, which I paired with leftover potatoes from dinner, plus a couple pieces of bacon that were in the fridge!

The little dressing container in the middle of the potatoes on the right has a little bit of honey in it... don't judge, I like syrup or honey with my bacon. It's not as uncommon as you might think (at least not in the South).

I actually used another Sistema container to bring the Accidental Cookies to work, and one of the tiny squeeze bottles to bring the lime icing (it's a little liquidy, so I didn't want to put it on the cookies and have it all drip to the bottom).

Sauteed Apples and Pork Medallions with Pan Sauce

If that doesn't sound like the fanciest dinner I've made so far, I don't know what does.

The only thing I think I would change is that I was dice the apples to get a more thorough cooking. The first 1/4" or so got cooked fine, but if I had waited for the whole halves to get cooked through, the bottom would have become mush. I already made some changes to the original while I was cooking.

As you can see in the photo, I made potatoes (with cumin and garlic powder this time) and peas to go with this.

Sauteed Apples & Pork Medallions with Pan Sauce

Ingredients

2 Granny Smith apples, halved

2 pork medallions (or you can slice your own pork tenderloin, about 1/4" thick)

2 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp cumin

salt & pepper

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 Tbsp oil (I used vegetable oil)

1 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Equipment

stove, pan with high-ish sides, have your plates ready

Instructions

Put oil and butter in pan on medium heat. Sprinkle your apples with salt & pepper on the cut sides. In the meantime, mix flour, cumin, and some salt & pepper. Lightly coat the pork medallions and set aside. Once butter is melted, stir it up and add apples, cut-side down. Cook until they look approximately like the picture (about 5 minutes). Remove them and put on plates. Add pork medallions to the pan and cook about 4-5 minutes on each side (until done). Set aside on plates. Add chicken broth and white wine vinegar to the pan and scrape up any bits from the bottom. After about a minute, add minced garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes until it reduces a bit. Pour pan sauce over pork and serve.

Yields

2 servings

Total time

about 30 minutes (although I started the potatoes earlier, because they took about 45 minutes)

Cleanup rating 2/5

One of the amazing things about making a pan sauce (other than the incredible flavor it yields) is that deglazing the pan does the "hard" work of cleaning the pan for you! Instead of scrubbing off all the little bits afterward, you just put delicious liquid into the pan and it turns those bits into food! Although, with all the oil and apple juice and broth and meat juices and butter going on, there was quite a bit of splatter (I may have used a bit too much oil) so that made a little bit of a mess.

Difficulty rating 4/10

Actually quite easy. The hardest thing was trying to determine when things were done. I'm pretty sure I've never cooked pork (which is weird, but chicken is just so easy) and I've certainly never sauteed apple halves, so I was a little lost the whole time. Cubing the apples would have made the whole thing a lot easier.

Flavor rating 7/10

YUM. The apples were a little weird (again, they only got half-cooked I think, so cubing would help... or at least slicing). But the pork was very good, and the pan sauce was delicious. (I added the garlic on a whim, and I'm ever so glad that I did. I would probably have added a  little finely diced onion if I had remembered that there was half an onion in the fridge. And maybe used a splash of wine too.)

NEW CATEGORY!!!

Adjustability: high

Obviously, I've already mentioned that the apples were too big. And that I messed with the pan sauce quite a bit (and would do so even more in the future). So this new category will help consolidate all of these ideas. Low adjustability means I don't think I would change anything, or I don't know how. Medium adjustability means I could change one or two things, or I wouldn't change it very much. High adjustability means the possibilities are endless, and/or I have lots of ideas of what to change in future attempts.

NEW CATEGORY!!!

Make it with

This category will tell you what I did make to go with the recipe, or what I might consider making with it. I already mentioned that this one was made with potatoes (with cumin and garlic) and peas. I might also make rice, and any green vegetable you like... broccoli might be good.

Pulled Pork for Dummies

I got this one from Cassy, who was right in describing it as super easy and super yummy. If you have three ingredients, a crockpot, and all day to wait, you have pulled pork, my friends.

Pulled Pork

Ingredients
Pork roast
Bbq sauce of your choice
Applesauce

Equipment
Crockpot

Instructions
Put the roast in the crockpot. Pour most of a bottle of bbq sauce on/around it. Cover the top of the roast with applesauce. Cook on low for 8-9 hours. Shred with a fork.

Yields
Depends on how you eat your pulled pork. I could probably make ten sandwiches out of this thing, maybe more.

Total time
8-9 hours (unattended)

Cleanup rating 4/5
I hate cleaning the crockpot. (Usually Birk winds up doing it for me.) I used to have some of those plastic liners... I should find those again, then this would be like a 1/5.

Difficulty rating 1/10
Put three things in the pot and turn it on (and make sure it's plugged in). Literally anyone can do this.

Flavor rating 7/10
Birk suggested a more... permeating... sauce. Something with more vinegar (I used a honey bbq... not the best suited to this task, because it stays on the outside of the roast for the most part). But I enjoyed it very much anyway.